Brokerages Set Gildan Activewear Inc. (TSE:GIL) Price Target at C$68.50

Gildan Activewear Inc. (TSE:GIL) (NYSE:GIL) has received a consensus recommendation of “Buy” from the six brokerages that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is C$68.50.

GIL has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. National Bankshares lifted their target price on Gildan Activewear from C$78.00 to C$83.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Desjardins lifted their price objective on shares of Gildan Activewear from C$82.00 to C$87.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, UBS Group raised shares of Gildan Activewear from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 10th.

Insider Activity at Gildan Activewear

In other news, Senior Officer John Maness sold 1,661 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$68.77, for a total transaction of C$114,234.28. Also, Senior Officer Michael Schroeder sold 4,299 shares of Gildan Activewear stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$78.02, for a total value of C$335,428.68. Insiders sold 110,144 shares of company stock worth $8,568,586 in the last 90 days. 2.26% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Gildan Activewear Stock Performance

Shares of TSE:GIL opened at C$66.85 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of C$72.81 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of C$68.32. Gildan Activewear has a 52 week low of C$44.23 and a 52 week high of C$79.11. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 2.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 101.26. The stock has a market capitalization of C$7.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.93, a PEG ratio of 4.55 and a beta of 1.64.

Gildan Activewear (TSE:GIL) (NYSE:GIL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The company reported C$0.83 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of C$0.82 by C$0.01. Gildan Activewear had a return on equity of 23.10% and a net margin of 13.05%. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.75 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Gildan Activewear will post 4.5460385 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Gildan Activewear Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 7th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 7th will be paid a $0.226 dividend. This is a positive change from Gildan Activewear’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 12th. This represents a $0.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.35%. Gildan Activewear’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.76%.

About Gildan Activewear

Gildan is a vertically integrated designer and manufacturer of basic apparel, including T-shirts, underwear, socks, and hosiery. Its primary market is the sale of blank T-shirts to wholesalers and printers (printwear). Gildan also sells branded clothing through retail and direct-to-consumer channels.